These are heady times indeed. A little over a year ago, Apple Computer was in serious trouble. For six years, shrinking market share, management infighting and mismanagement had taken their toll. Huge quarterly losses were a clear sign of the trauma at Apple. Ten years earlier the race for world domination was lost, as the company took short-term profit instead of concentrating on winning market share. Microsoft and Intel became world-wide standards: Apple was relegated to filling a niche - and even that was being steadily eroded. Ultimately it took five years, one returned visionary and one brightly coloured piece of plastic to turn it around, and the company has now posted its seventh consecutive quarterly profit since the return of co-founder and interim chief executive Steve Jobs.
By simplifying the company's product lines, selling computers directly over the Internet and bringing sense to operating system strategy, Jobs has recaptured Apple's original reputation for creating innovative, simple to use, powerful, stylish computers. Although the corporate world still curtsies to Chairman Bill at 9 a.m. every morning, Apple's market share is back up into double figures. Software developers who had thrown up their hands in despair at Apple's decline are returning to the fold. Europe and Japan, especially, love the iMac. As Macintosh diehards never tire of saying, people make an emotional connection to Macintosh that PC users simply don't. Jobs's crowning achievement has been to distill the essence of Apple into a simplified product line. At the centre is the iMac, a stunning piece of industrial design and a superb computer for doing the things people actually want to do - write a letter, surf the Web, play a video game. No DOS prompts: no Control-Alt-Delete: no three-letter suffixes. Innovative technologies such as the Sherlock search engine and QuickTime multimedia software have strengthened Apple's position in setting standards for quality software development. Apple also scored a major coup in having the teaser trailer for a certain movie you may just have heard about (which happened a long time ago in a galaxy far far away) released exclusively in Quicktime, thanks to the close association between Apple and Lucasfilm.
In the media and creative arts, Macintosh is everywhere. A great many websites are designed on Macintosh, just as most television programmes and movies are created and edited using systems based around Macintosh. You see them everywhere. Chandler Bing reads MacUser. A Powerbook sits in the corner of Jerry Seinfeld's apartment. Al Green's piano player goes nowhere without his. Chances are if you see the hero of a movie using a computer, it'll be a Macintosh. Steven Jobs may have inspired Apple to great things, but it will have to continue to deliver if it is to draw people permanently away from Windows' ubiquity. Where Apple can and will make inroads is in the integration of Internet and operating system (OS), which forms the core of most major OS strategies in the near future. While Microsoft is somewhat hamstrung by the ongoing feud with the US Justice Department, Apple is in a better position than most to capitalise, thanks to the strength of its core technology.
Apple's newest offering promises to be a deeply desirable item - a brand new consumer notebook that will come in iMac-like colours. There's also a lot of big talk about a new generation of iMacs with larger screens and faster processors. The industry's current obsession with connectivity and portability may see the company re-entering the handheld market it fled after the Newton debacle with a new Palm-type device. More importantly, the reworking of the former OS strategies Rhapsody and Copland has resulted in the next-generation Macintosh operating system OS X. This is to be released in early 2000 and should boost both revenue and market share.
From this, hopefully, Apple can go from strength to strength. Bear in mind that the ongoing success of Wintel alternatives such as Apple and Linux is vital for the fundamental well-being of an industry that thrives on originality and competition. As long as Apple can continue to be competitive - by keeping prices low, preserving a strong product line and cleverly managing inventory - then the company can continue to fulfil its role as a highly influential and innovative niche player.
ted.felton@mdimedia.com